QUESTION: I have been a devout follower of Jesus Christ for 22 years. Recently, I have been questioning the validity of Christianity. The Freemasons tell their members that they have made up Christianity and all world religions as a way to better society. When I look at the ancient Sun God worship Mithraism and other forms […]
QUESTION: If the Bible is the most accurate historical text, and doesn’t have any direct proof against it, then what makes the Old and New Testament only 99% accurate and not 100% accurate? Answer: The original writings of the New Testament authors (known as the “autographs” to scholars) are perfect and inspired. These letters were […]
QUESTION: Why is the name “the LORD” substituted for Yaweh? Answer: The Jews came to view the name of God YHWH to be too holy to be spoken in common language. For this reason, in Hebrew versions of the Old Testament they substituted the Hebrew word for The LORD for YHWH. This tendency goes all […]
Question: Quick question for you regarding Matthew 23:35, Is this a copyist error? Is this referring to Zechariah son of Jehoiada? Answer: It is possible that this is a copyist’s error, substituting Berekiah for Jehoiada. I cannot rule that out. More likely, though, there was an actual Zechariah, son of Berekiah who was killed, but […]
Comment: I think Mr Oakes needs to take a course in logic. He attempts to discredit Robert Eisenman by using, not the extant historical evidence, but the unsubstantiated writings of “early church fathers”,and the new testament “writings” of Peter and Luke. First of all there is not a single writing of the church fathers and […]
Question: One last question if you have time . Was there an Old Testament canon completed before the time of Christ that the Jews used? Or was it not until 90AD at Jamnia that it was established? I’m seeing different claims on this topic. Was hoping maybe you could help me clear it up? […]
Question: I can’t find any solid information on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and why these books are not considered inspired scripture. I know they are considered false writings, but why? Are the Old Testament pseudepigrapha and the Old Testament apocrypha consideredto be the same thing? Is the OT Pseudepigrapha just a branch of the OT apocryphal writings? […]
Question: I have spent the last two years trying to learn from the Holy Spirit. During this time the issue of Bible translations has arisen. The Lord led me to look at and compare all the different versions. I found the NIV translation to have omitted many vital scriptures. This has also left me wondering […]
Question: I am a 20 year old college student from Louisiana and I have been a Christian all my life. There came a time this past summer where I began to question my faith and why I believed what I did. I began searching and instead found a lot of atheist arguments which proceeded to […]
Question: This is starting to circulate on the internet. Facebook……etc. I am sure young christians in our congregations may have a hard time with it. Just curious if you guys have heard about it yet. http://uk.prweb.com/releases/2013/10/prweb11201273.htm Response: Ancient Confession Found: ‘We Invented Jesus Christ.’ A new “theory” to explain the genesis of Christianity is making […]
Question: Professor, one of the characters that I find most curious that there isn’t a lot of information about is Melchizedek. Besides Hebrews Chapter 7, Genesis 14, several references in Psalms, and mention in the Pseudoepigraph “The Book of the Bee” of the Book of the Cave of Treasures, are there any legitimate sources in […]
Question: I have seen your view about the book of Enoch.first I have to tell you where I am from , I am actually from Ethiopia. the only christian country that accepted the book of Enoch as canon.please I want much evidences that can disprove its authenticity. do you have? Answer: I did not say […]
Question: [editor’s note: this lengthy question and points being made come from a Jewish Christian who believes that Christians are required to obey kosher food laws, such as the prohibition of eating pork and shellfish. The article he and I both refer to is one about the interpretation of Acts 10. I am attaching […]
Question: Do you have any references you could pass along that might shed some light on 1 Clement, both in terms of its dating and his possible authorship of Hebrews? I saw a recent question on your site regarding dating 1 Clement to the late 60’s (which makes a lot of sense to me). All […]
Question: I have been reading at your site which I have found to be very intresting and informative…. I noticed a little there on the Gnostic gospels. My question is…since there is no proof that the main 4 gospels..Matthew Mark Luke and John..are legitimate .. I was wondering where you get the information on the […]
Question: I wanted to ask you a question in regards to the book of Daniel. The LXX [editor’s note: this is the Septuagint Greek version] version of the book of Daniel has three additional passages, “The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children, the stories of Susannah and the Elders and Bel […]
Question: Hi, John! I have some questions about discoveries. Tell me, please, if I am not right. 1. This tablet now in Germany – http://ferrelljenkins.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/evil-merodach-562-560-graciously-freed-jehoiachin/ 2. This tablet now in London (from your PDF) – text from tablet: [In] the seventh year, the month of Kislev, the king of Babylonia mustered his forces and marched […]
Editor’s Note: This is a series of interactions with a person who is obviously a Muslim making a typical argument against Isaiah 7:14 as a messianic prophecy. See below for further arguments from this person. Question: If you say that the Hebrew word in Isaiah 14 means a virgin and that it is a dual prophecy, […]
QUESTION: The Greek translation of the Hebrew OT was called the Septuagint and I’ve read it was used in the early NT church and often quoted by NT writers. I’ve also read that it contained the Apocrypha, which was not accepted into the Hebrew OT canon. Question #1 “Was the Septuagint read in the NT […]
Question: I have “heard” that there are other letters Paul wrote that are not in the Bible. For example, there was a Third letter to the Church of Corinth that was not included in the Bible — Why not? Answer: It is hard to respond to the general question about “other letters.” There are many […]
QUESTION: It’s been a while since I’ve asked you a question. I thank you for all your help and compassion for people. You’ve truly helped me out in my spiritual walk with God. I wanted to ask you a question that has been on my mind for some time now. As you know there are supposed […]
Question: Thank you so much for your faithful work and dedication to answering my questions. The Bible calls us to be ready in and out of season, so i would like to knock down a question about the writers of the Bible. The Bible claims that John wrote his gospel, Paul wrote Romans, and Paul wrote […]
Question: I have a question about how to get the best meaning from the context of the Bible (How to understand what the writer’s intent was). I was wondering since no Bible translation is perfect, is it good to get a Hebrew and Greek interlinear Bible? I have used one from a download online called Scripture4all. […]
Question: (editor’s note: This question is a follow-up to earlier ones. Some unedited earlier correspondence is below) I am now starting to have more confidence in the Scripture, and starting to see truth from error. So you’re saying Prof. Ehrman is on one side and that side is to work against God, and this is […]
Question: I just want to give you this link and see if you can answer some of the claims Ehrman has. This video was the reason I started to have doubts in my faith. Could you maybe give some information on the claims in this audio? I am farther in my faith now, thanks to your explanations! It seems […]
Question: One thing I have come across is that in John chapter 5, where it talks about the healing at the pool on the Sabbath, older translations say in verse 4 “for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water”. I am very convinced that […]
Question: Since the orignial writings where inspired by God, but we can’t have the 100% perfect translation what would be the best Bible to read that would be closest to the Greek and Hebrew text? What is different between the the manuscripts we have compared to the original writings? Any numbers wrong ? Are there any […]
QUESTION: I’ve recently watched a debate between Bart Ehrman and Daniel Wallace about the reliability of The New Testament text. Bart Ehrman brought up a point that the Acts of the apostles or Acts was transmitted in two different editions. I was wondering have you ever read the edition that’s different from our Acts in […]
QUESTION: A few sections of Ezra (4:8-6:18;7:12-26) and Daniel (2:4b-7:28) are written in Aramaic. From some of the research that I have read I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s most likely “Official Aramaic”, however I can’t seem to find a good reason why the author would write in Aramaic and Hebrew. I was wondering […]
QUESTION: I read this article and wondering is it true?? Here is the link: http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/14893067/early-christians-believed-jesus-wed-harvard-expert/ Answer: The article is “true” in the sense that a fourth century papyrus with seven partial lines of script in the Coptic language was found. It is also true in the sense that the papyrus manuscript has a phrase “Jesus said […]
Question: I know Yahoo Answers isn’t a very reliable source, so I am asking you about an answer that was there. Someone commented on a question that was asked. The question was ” Where were the Gospels written?” One of the answers was “Tons of people compiled, copied and translated and edited the gospels all […]
Question: Does this not give you something to think about ? [editor’s note: some personal info about where the questioner got this info and generated the question is left out here] Bruce wrote: “There are texts which may have lacked the Prayer of Forgiveness on the Cross in Luke (so like Luke to invent this in the […]
QUESTION: I was recently browsing youtube,and found a video about a banned book called Book of Enoch. What is it? Answer: As far as I know, no important group has banned the book of Enoch. Just so you know, some call this book the 1st (1 Enoch) because other pseudepigraphal books (books with a falsely-claimed […]
QUESTION: Is there any evidence aganst the idea that Daniel 7:1-12:13( the section of daniel that is written in the first person) was not a part of the original book of daniel,but was written dering the maccabean wars and then added to the original text( the section of daniel that is written in the third […]
QUESTION: I know I’ve asked you questions regarding to the different OT translations and transmissions (Septuagint, SP, MT), however I’ve recently been troubled by two somewhat different positions on the accuracy of the transmission. Emmanual Tov a leading scholar on the dead sea scrolls and textual critic recently came out with a book “Textual Criticism […]
QUESTION: I’m having trouble believing that every single word in the Bible is true. I do know that Jesus’ resurrection is true and can be proven to a certain degree historically and that the creation of the universe can also be proven to a certain degree with scientific data and theories. But I’m having a […]
Question: I really appreciate the time you take to read and respond these emails (which I believe does not give you anything in return but I believe you do it for Christ). I need an advice from you. I have been a kind of person who looks to validate things. I have followed a lot […]
QUESTION: I have a question regarding to the ending of Mark. I understand that the evidence for Mark’s ending is scant, however I don’t understand why the scribe that wrote the passage would insert this statement “he appeared first to Mary Magdalene” when clearly in Matthew and Luke Jesus appears to others before Mary Magdalene. […]
Question: I was wondering if you had any information regarding the following topic “Has the Bible been changed.” I would guess, through cross referencing all the manuscripts over the past centuries, we would be able to identify what has been changed within the text. Do you have any sources of info/studies for this? I would […]
Question: When were the Gospels written? I saw something on the History Channel that said that the first Gospel was Mark and was written 40 years after the death of Jesus and that the other three Gospels copied Mark’s Gospel and added to it. If this is true, how accurate could they be if they […]
Who wrote 1st Kings? Why is Revelation not included in Codex Vaticanus? (many more) Question: Who wrote the books of kings? What is the evidence? Why is it that the vaticanus codex does NOT have the book of Revelation? Did the human part of Jesus worship the divine part of Jesus? The rabbit chews the […]
Question: I was trying to get some quality, unbiased information regarding the evidence for Christianity when I stumbled across your piece on Genesis possibly being written by four different groups. https://www.evidenceforchristianity.org/index.php?option=com_custom_content&task=view&id=4962 I have to say, if your objective is to prove your side of the story than surely you will need to provide some evidence […]
Question: Why does the Septuagint Bible consist of additional books (3 Kings, 4 kings, Maccabees,etc.) and psalms (151,152)? From my understanding some of these books and psalms were found in the DSS, so why wasn’t it included in the canon? Answer: The question of what the content of the Septuagint is/was is not an easy […]
Question: I have a lot of trouble when presented with "picky" questions about numbers, names, or even localities of the Bible events. Some of them are raised by people I talk to, and some of them are mine, when trying to read the Bible deeper and have a better understanding of God’s word. As for […]
Question: How did the Philistines get 30,000 chariots in 1 Sam 13:5? Is there any evidence that this is a copyist error? Answer: The answer is that the Septuagint and Syriac translations have 3000 rather than 30,000 chariots. Both are very early translations of the Old Testament which were made many hundreds of years before […]
Question: Sorry to add another question to my previous question, but I was wondering how do you feel about the use of the Septuagint and the pre-Samaritan text in the New Testament? I know that these two versions of the Old Testament sometimes differ and have on older Hebrew reading from the Masoretic text. Would […]
Question: Some non-believers do believe Christ rose from the dead. The historical evidence is great. We mark our calendars by the event. Sadly even liberal Christians buy the baseless fairy tale that the writings of Josephus were "revised" or the book of Luke was "planted" in the Roman libraries despite not a shred of evidence […]
Question: Why is the tribe of Dan NOT LISTED in Revelation with the other tribes of Israel? Answer: There are a number of theories about why Dan is not included. The scripture does not tell us, so we are left with the need to do at least some speculating. Let me list a few suggested […]
Question: What do you think about 1 Samuel 13:1? In my Bible it states that the Hebrew manuscripts state "Saul was … years old when he became king; and he reigned two years over Israel". I’ve looked at several different versions of the verse and some state one year old, and two years over Israel […]
Question: I wanted to ask your perspective to the use of the Masoretic text instead of the Septuagint. This article online (http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/masorete.htm) states that the Masoretic text isn’t as reliable. I do hold to the Masoretic text to be more trustworthy because it’s comparison to the DSS evidence is remarkable, and because it was written in […]
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